Mega thanks to you for your help, all working now.
I changed the count query slightly as I found a conflict. If a publication had no issues, it was still included within the count adding 1 to the total and giving me blank pages. Here is what I changed the count query to for anyone interested:
$query = $dbconn->prepare("SELECT COUNT(publication.id) AS Publications
FROM publication INNER JOIN
publication_issue ON publication.id = publication_issue.publication_id
WHERE (publication.tags LIKE :tags)");
$query->execute(array(':tags'=>'%e%'));
$totalRecords = $query->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
Is there a way to add reputation on this site? You definitely deserve it!
I think SP used to have a reputation facility many many years ago (when I first joined), but it’s been gone for a long time now. We joined the same year - do you remember that also? (Or am I confusing this with a different forum?)
Do I remember that… unfortunately, my memory isn’t that great. I know at one point it was using phpBB and then they migrated to vBulletin, but I really can’t recall how the forums behaved then compared to now. They could have had it, I just don’t remember.